Americans United - tax lawhttps://au.org/tags/tax-law
enMeeks Speaks: Chicago Mayoral Candidate Chafes At Limits On Church Politickinghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/meeks-speaks-chicago-mayoral-candidate-chafes-at-limits-on-church
<a href="/about/people/bathija">Sandhya Bathija</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Chicago mayoral candidate James T. Meeks doesn’t understand why his church can’t support his run for office.</p>
<p>As a pastor, he speaks from the pulpit every Sunday, mindful of the federal tax law that prevents him from seeking campaign support from his congregation.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/elections/ct-met-chicago-mayor-meeks-sermon-20101211,0,3796511.story">According</a> to the <em>Chicago Tribune</em>, Meeks says he follows the rules but he’s not happy about them.</p>
<p>"I am running for office, and you know that…. I can take all the money I want from the (National Rifle Association), from the pharmaceutical companies, from the riverboat people, from the tobacco industry and from the liquor industry,” he told worshippers at his Salem Baptist Church. “I can take all the money…. I can take it, it's legal. But I can't take one dime from a church. Something is wrong with that picture.”</p>
<p>Meeks seems to think the IRS rule barring pastors from endorsing or opposing candidates is just another way to stifle Christians. He seems to think congregations should be allowed to rally for a candidate who has been “saved” by their belief in Jesus.</p>
<p>"If homosexuals can endorse a candidate, why can't a church?" Meeks said from the pulpit last Sunday, soon after he voted against a same-sex civil union law recently passed in Illinois.</p>
<p>It is obvious Meeks does not understand the IRS rule, and I’d like to take a moment to explain it to him.</p>
<p>Any group that receives a 501(c)(3) tax exemption, and that includes houses of worship as well as a wide array of other non-profits, is barred from becoming involved in a campaign. If his church wants to get involved with elections and endorse candidates, it’s free to do that – but it must forgo its tax exemption. A gay rights group that receives a tax exemption has to play by these rules, too.</p>
<p>As for Meeks’ argument that Christians are being targeted or singled out by this rule, well, that’s just nonsense.</p>
<p>In fact, the rule benefits all religious organizations in that it prevents houses of worship from becoming cogs in a political machine. People go to church to receive spiritual guidance – not to talk about candidates. In the past, pastors who have unlawfully become involved with elections have divided their congregations and isolated those that did not subscribe to the same political views.</p>
<p>Meeks should realize that it’s perfectly fine for him to be involved with politics as an individual. It’s also fine for him to encourage members of his congregation to get involved as individuals. It’s quite a different story, however, for him to use church resources to subsidize his campaign or tell parishioners whom they should vote for.</p>
<p>That is a personal and private decision, and most Americans agree. A 2008 <a href="http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=28983&amp;ref=BPNews-RSSFeed0924">poll</a> by LifeWay Research, a firm connected to the Southern Baptist Convention, found that 74 percent of Americans do not believe “it is appropriate for churches to publicly endorse candidates for public office.”</p>
<p>So there you have it. It’s a simple rule that all tax-exempt groups must abide by. If Meeks doesn’t want to follow it, he has that option. Be he can’t expect a tax break, too.</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/churches-and-politics">Churches and Politics</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/chicago-mayor">Chicago mayor</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/churches-and-politics">Churches and Politics</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/elections">Elections</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/internal-revenue-service-irs">Internal Revenue Service (IRS)</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/james-t-meeks">James T. Meeks</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/tax-law">tax law</a></span></div></div>Wed, 15 Dec 2010 20:09:35 +0000Sandhya Bathija2492 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/meeks-speaks-chicago-mayoral-candidate-chafes-at-limits-on-church#commentsOklahoma Outlaw: Edmond Preacher Boldly Broke Federal Tax Lawhttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/oklahoma-outlaw-edmond-preacher-boldly-broke-federal-tax-law
<a href="/about/people/bathija">Sandhya Bathija</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>The Rev. Paul Blair, pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond, Okla. has <a href="http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=1107218">told</a> a right-wing news service that America’s clergy need to become bold again.</p>
<p>In fact, Blair thinks pastors should be more like him. In mid-July, the Religious Right leader used his tax-exempt organization, Reclaiming Oklahoma For Christ, to distribute an e-mail in support of Rep. Sally Kern, a candidate seeking reelection to the state House of Representatives. Americans United <a href="http://www.au.org/media/press-releases/archives/2010/07/irs-should-investigate-okla.html">asked</a> the Internal Revenue Service to investigate Blair’s group, since tax law prohibits 501(c)(3) organizations from endorsing candidates for office.</p>
<p>Blair readily admits he used his tax-exempt group to intervene in the election.</p>
<p>“They actually have a transgender candidate here in the state of Oklahoma running against [Kern] -- a man that's now, I guess, a woman,” Blair told One News Now, the news service of the American Family Association. “He's running against Sally, and we just alerted folks that Sally was having a campaign kickoff. Anybody that wished to go could go.”</p>
<p>Federal tax doesn’t seem to concern him.</p>
<p>“If a pastor doesn’t get a letter or two from Barry Lynn, then he’s probably not doing his job efficiently,” Blair said. “[AU Executive Director] Barry Lynn is out trying to intimidate pastors, as he always does, in trying to make baseless allegations, frivolous complaints and scare us back into silence.”</p>
<p>Blair doesn’t have to be “silent,” and he can be as “bold” as he wants. But if his group wants the benefit of a tax exemption, it cannot become a partisan political machine and rally support for a candidate. That’s the tradeoff. Blair can’t have it both ways.</p>
<p>That’s all AU’s Lynn is trying to get across. He is just stating the facts. If Blair doesn’t care to follow the law, he will just have to face the consequences.</p>
<p>Fortunately, most Americans disagree with Blair. They have respect for the law and don’t want to see their churches turned into political machines.</p>
<p>That was made clear by a 2008 poll taken by LifeWay, a group connected to the conservative Southern Baptist Convention. The poll revealed that 87 percent of Americans do not “believe it is appropriate for pastors to publicly endorse candidates for public office during a church service.”</p>
<p>Americans have many good reasons for this viewpoint, some of which Lynn <a href="http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news/opinion/columnists/local/article_f443eb08-9c1a-11df-8f0d-001cc4c03286.html">pointed out</a> in a column for the <em>Rapid City </em>(S.D.)<em> Journal</em> over the weekend.</p>
<p>“Houses of worship exist to save souls, not save some politician’s campaign,” he wrote. “Americans go to church to connect with God, not to take part in political rallies. Americans respect faith and members of the clergy, but they see no reason for political preachers to corrupt the mission of the church by turning houses of worship into some candidate’s political machine.”</p>
<p>Blair should recognize that federal tax law hardly prevents him from speaking out. Even with this rule in place, pastors can still freely discuss issues, such as same-sex marriage, abortion, war and the economy. And they certainly do.</p>
<p>But there is a legal line drawn between talking about the moral issues of the day and actually playing a direct role in elections.</p>
<p>“Without this IRS rule,” Lynn wrote, “politicians could create phony tax-exempt front groups, run partisan campaigns through them and be virtually unaccountable to the American public. The last thing our political system needs is a loophole like this.”</p>
<p>After all, many campaigns are already full of trash talk and foul play. Do we really need to bring religion into it, too?</p>
<p>I don’t think so. We’ve seen that this has never worked well in places such as Northern Ireland, Lebanon and Iraq, where politicized religion plays a very destructive role in public life. The system we have in the United States has served us well. Whether Blair accepts that or not will determine whether he will continue to reap its benefits.</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/churches-and-politics">Churches and Politics</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/churches-and-politics">Churches and Politics</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/internal-revenue-service-irs">Internal Revenue Service (IRS)</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/paul-blair">Paul Blair</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/reclaiming-oklahoma-christ">Reclaiming Oklahoma for Christ</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/tax-law">tax law</a></span></div></div>Tue, 03 Aug 2010 18:57:48 +0000Sandhya Bathija2454 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/oklahoma-outlaw-edmond-preacher-boldly-broke-federal-tax-law#comments